NHS has failed to improve treatment of acquired brain injury

People with acquired brain injury are being denied good treatment because the NHS has reneged on its promise to improve services, charity Leonard Cheshire will tell MPs next week.

Acquired brain injury was one of the conditions identified by the NHS as needing improvement in its 2005 Better Metrics performance table. Leonard Cheshire believes these improvements should now have been made.

The charity’s head of acquired brain injury services, Amanda Swain, will tell a parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, which is to mark brain injury awareness week, that “there is no sign that these good intentions are being followed through”.

While centres such as Leeds General Infirmary, where TV presenter Richard Hammond was treated after his high-speed accident have superb neurology services, other parts of the country are lagging behind, the charity says.